Indholdsfortegnelse for August - September 2019 i Sound + Image

There’s a mightily odd audio story going around (Wired, the BBC, The Sun et al) about a UK researcher presenting the idea of “custom malware that can induce all sorts of embedded speakers to emit inaudible frequencies at high intensity, or blast out audible sounds at high volume.” Apparently these “aural barrages can potentially harm human hearing, cause tinnitus, or even possibly have psychological effects.” We’ve heard about smart TVs being potentially hackable, opening up their cameras (less common after their initial popularity) and microphones (increasingly included for voice assistance) for use as handy in-home spying devices, though I’d reckon that our ‘own’ intelligence agencies, the ‘Five Eyes’, would be the ones most interested in doing the monitoring. Similarly for laptop cameras and microphones — Mark Zuckerberg tapes over his…

Soundbars have always been about convenience solutions, so the addition of voice control seems a good match. Yamaha has made its latest two bars not merely Alexa-compatible (i.e. requiring a separate Alexa device) but fully integrated, incorporating Alexa voice control through a built-in microphone. The $599 YAS-207 comes with a wireless subwoofer, while the $399 YAS-107 manages on its own; both models support Dolby Digital and DTS Digital Surround decoding as well as DTS Virtual:X for “immersive 3D surround sound that appears to come from around and above you”. Both have one 4K-compatible HDMI input along with HDMI output with ARC, able to play back down the cable from your TV, and supporting CEC so your TV remote control can be used to adjust the sound bar volume. An optical…

As of last year, EISA dropped ‘European’ from its name to become the Expert Imaging and Sound Association, as it welcomes new member magazines from Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan, the United States — plus our titles Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi here in Australia. You might imagine that getting editors from 61 special interest magazines across 29 countries to agree on a final list of winners might be quite the process. We were pleased to find it a highly organised one. Note that while most winners have identical or near-identical Australian counterparts, sometimes our outlying region gets a significantly different model, or the brand is not available here at all. The rest, however, represent the world’s best. We are presenting here the winners from the two Home Theatre expert groups;…

The front three reclining seats and the double ‘love seat’ behind are all equipped with D-BOX cinematic motion systems. A D-BOX Controller identifies content regardless of the source (DVD, Blu-ray or streaming sources such as Netflix and AppleTV), and simply transmits the motion codes from its to the chairs in sync with the playback. Importantly, the movement is subtle enough to be non-distracting, but highly immersive. “D-BOX adds to the suspension of disbelief,” says Wavetrain’s David Moseley. “If you want to be a part of the movie, then you should be feeling what the characters on screen are. We’ve had many clients sit on D-BOX and say ‘I didn’t think I would be experiencing that!’ — it’s because D-BOX is so fast and most movements are so small that you…

Like many other companies, Sony all but stopped selling turntables during vinyl’s years of decline. But also like many other companies, it has been encouraged back to the medium by its revival, both by the numbers and by vinyl’s sheer cool-ness. In 2016 it announced the quite serious PS-HX500 turntable, which received excellent reviews including a Sound+Image award. It proved itself not only on the sonics but for including both its own phono stage, so those without a traditional phono input on their amplifier could plug it into any line-level input, and a USB connection to a computer which, using supplied Sony software, could then easily digitise the vinyl played on the turntable, and at high-res, no less, with the Sony-derived DSD format if you wished. There was also a…

JBL’s wireless noise-cancelling LIVE 650BTNC headphones have just picked up an award from EISA’s Mobile Devices Expert Group, a particularly impressive achievement given that the price here of $249.95 is significantly below the sweet-spot of $399/$499 around which so many wireless noise-cancellers group themselves. Yet these seem to have the full gamut of abilities — Bluetooth, active noise-cancelling, an app which allows customisation, even a direct connection to the voice assistant of your choice (well, Alexa or Google). So do they suffer on sound quality or build to balance the books? We’ll cut to the chase, and tell you that the answer is ‘no’. Indeed we warmed quickly to the JBLs, as these proved a pair of headphones which just got on with the job. There was no fumbling with…

This second entry from The Digital Picture is in the same category, but with quite a different brief. The client wanted a cinema room that would deliver high impact movies when you’re in the front row, while the back row was to be available for general TV and sports viewing, but also be a relaxation zone for reading a book or playing cards and chess. To achieve this it was agreed that the rear row should sit considerably higher than the front row, and be left more open, with only two seats and a flexible arrangement able to be moved around to suit the activity. With 4K Netflix and sports as the main viewing, a large 16:9 screen was again selected, while the sound system uses Pro Audio active speakers…

This first contender in CEDIA’s Level III Home Cinemas sees Len Wallis Audio delivering the largest channel count of any Meridian-based theatre system in the world — for a young family of five “who were knowledgeable and experienced with home cinemas, owning a luxury cinema in another of their homes.” Yet it was a challenging space — a 1960s home with a room built entirely from structural concrete. The client requested (as do nearly all clients) the largest possible screen; the calculations allowed a wall-to-wall 157-inch Stewart Filmscreen CinemaScope screen, with a calibrated Sony 4K laser projector, and again a Lumagen video processor making use of its non-linear stretch modes on 16:9 material. The all-Meridian active system has three DSP7200SE floorstanders behind the screen (pictured middle right), 10 DSP640 in-wall…

Liquid Automation There are two finalists in this CEDIA Awards category of Innovative System or Solution, which CEDIA defines as “a unique, innovative, or creative installation solution or use of technology that that meets the homeowner’s unique requirements”. In the case of the project from New Zealand’s Liquid Automation (who we know best from their world-class marine work) the ‘homeowner’ is the whole of Auckland! The job was to upgrade and refresh the audio-visual technologies within three key spaces of Auckland Town Hall — the reception lounge, the main Chamber, and the pictured Boardroom. Although the tender had indicated preferred systems, Liquid Automation engineering a customised solution to meet the challenges of the complex spaces, as there was not an off-the-shelf solution they felt met the criteria. Their solution consisted…

A Control4 platform integrates all this architecturally-designed Queensland home’s subsystems together, and what a wealth of subsystems those are — six 4K audio-visual zones with two more available for future expansion, eight distributed video sources (4K Apple TVs, Foxtel boxes, PVR, Blu-ray player and NAS recorder), six additional audio zones, plus security & CCTV, HVAC control, pool and spa, data networking, intercom and access control, and a full lighting control system with connection to motorised blinds. Custom home scenes and schedules have been made specific to the clients’ needs and lifestyle, easily accessed through Control4 touch panels and the app for mobile devices. The high-spec cinema pictured above was originally to be just another TV zone, but after seeing and experiencing the 130-inch projection at Electronic Living’s showroom, a full…

The owners of this Sydney home expressed their passion for high-quality music, AV and technology in general, and the team at Len Wallis Audio delivered them a Savant high-end automation platform to oversee lighting, access and security, and a massive 25 zones of audio, 12 of which are also video zones receiving seven distributed 4K sources and with video tiling enabled on every display. Those audio zones were individually tailored to each space, using loudspeakers from 10 different manufacturers, while the dedicated home theatre (below) delivers “beyond commercial-grade sound and visual capabilities”, with sound in 7.2.4 Atmos using B&W 700 series custom speakers, Yamaha Aventage pre-power amps and JL Audio Fathom 12-inch subwoofers, and vision from a Sony 4K laser projector with Severtson 141-inch acoustically transparent ‘Cinemascope’ screen. A Lumagen…

Another project that appeared in our coverage of Crestron’s awards, where it won ‘Best Integration using Crestron Partners’, this home combines an existing Heritage-listed property with an extended build which has a focus on comfort, convenience, security, entertainment and efficiency, notably minimising environmental impact through water harvesting into a 114,000-litre underground tank, and low-energy heating and cooling systems. Data and Wi-Fi coverage was also crucial, as the data network handles delivery of music and movies from around the world into nominated zones, and the streaming of security cameras, while still underpinning essential home office activities. Entertainment areas cover 15 music zones and eight TVs including two outside which can swivel for viewing from either side (below left), and an X-Golf commercial-grade golf-simulator (below) which doubles as a home theatre; Crestron…

Glance is based in Iwade, Japan, where this theatre/media room was retrofitted in an existing home. It required an “immersive surround and 4K AV system in the living space without feeling uncomfortable”, with a high-quality of design for living, and unified AV systems; the owners have a choice of a television in place for casual use, or the projector and screen for more dedicated movie viewing. While we lack detailed information for this room, we can identify the use of Linn speakers and Epson projection, along with AMX audio-visual control systems.…

We’ve seen nano and mini projectors before, but Epson’s new EF-100 is something rather different, and genuinely impressive both in what it offers and in the results it delivers (we have one up and running for this hands-on report). Notably it uses Epson’s 3LCD projection technology and has a long-life (20,000-hour) laser light source which should see out a decade of regular use. And it is able to deliver a quoted 2000 lumens output, bright enough to project a large image up to 150-inch diagonal even against a fair level of day-time ambient light. It shares Epson’s usual menu structure so it’s a breeze to push the brightness up to ‘Bright Cinema’ or ‘Vivid’ setting during daylight hours, returning to the more realistic results of ‘Cinema’ or ‘Natural’ for evening…

Tivoli Audio built its reputation on achieving solid sound out of small radios like the original Model One, designed by Henry Kloss and still available in various versions including a reimagined Model One ‘Digital’. So it makes sense for the company to apply that small enclosure expertise to a more general Bluetooth speaker, as it has done in the new Tivoli Go Andiamo, with an RRP of $299. The Andiamo’s 135mm diameter and 55mm depth gives enough room to go beyond the configuration of most mini Bluetooth speakers, Tivoli including both a 63.5mm active driver with 20W of power and a 76mm passive driver, while the 2600mAh battery promises 20 hours of playback time from a single charge. There’s an auxiliary minijack input as well as Bluetooth. Nice style, too,…

Beware the artificial ceiling! — that was one of the take-outs from the Australian tour of the Barco Bragi CinemaScope projector, where staff from Barco Residential and its Australian distributor National AV Solutions were demonstrating the new projector’s considerable abilities to assembled integrators. They were referring not to a physical artificial ceiling but to the potential of limited expectations in the home cinema projector market, something in which Sound+Image must admit to a role with our reviews of entry-level pixel-shifting 4K projectors in the sub-$5000 market, along with our recognition of the quality delivered by higher-level projectors using native 4K panels. But as Barco Residential was demonstrating, there is a level beyond, and for those seeking the highest image quality, and plenty more besides, it’s worth considering Barco’s claim that…

EISA is organised in Expert Groups for Hi-Fi, Home Theatre Video & Display, Home Theatre Audio, Photography, Mobile Devices, and Incar Electronics. We’ve listed all the winners on these pages, with full citations and pictures for those in the two Home Theatre Expert Group categories. We’re sure many readers will be interested in the full details of the Hi-Fi winners listed on this page, and our sister publication Australian Hi-Fi (also an EISA member) will be publishing these in its upcoming September/October issue. HI-FI EXPERT GROUP AWARDS EISA BEST BUY TURNTABLE 2019-2020 Pro-Ject X1 EISA ACTIVE STEREO LOUDSPEAKER 2019-2020 ELAC Navis ARB-51 EISA ALL-IN-ONE SYSTEM 2019-2020 Naim Audio Mu-so 2nd Generation EISA BEST BUY AMPLIFIER 2019-2020 Rotel A11 EISA BOOKSHELF LOUDSPEAKER 2019-2020 Monitor Audio Gold 100 EISA COMPACT STEREO SYSTEM…

Sennheiser’s AMBEO soundbar is a truly remarkable product in several ways. Most notable when you first encounter it is the sheer size — not so much its width, which at 126.5cm is not exceptionally wide in the soundbar world, but add in the height and depth and it’s a large 18.5kg enclosure. So while some companies have tried to minimise soundbar size, using a subwoofer to boost lower frequencies, Sennheiser has gone the other way — no subwoofer here, no separate rears, it’s just the soundbar. But a big ol’ four thousand dollars’ worth of soundbar... Equipment As you’ll read, that $4000 nets you not only what we think to be the biggest soundbar on the market, but also the best sonic performance we’ve yet heard from a bar. For…

In this business — writing and thinking about home entertainment equipment — there are two basic philosophies. Two philosophies that affect what we hear in our listening rooms, and what we see on our viewing screens. Two philosophies that can sometimes reach the same end result, but often diverge. One of those philosophies is that equipment should create the best subjective experience for the music listener, for the movie viewer. The other is that equipment should deliver the signal with utmost fidelity. That is, of course, why we even use the term ‘high fidelity’. In the real world, equipment usually instantiates both of those philosophies to some degree. Many TVs include motion smoothing features. Clearly, that’s all about subjective experience. It actually reduces accuracy, in papering over production weaknesses which…

So TCL recently pulled off something of a coup — it become the biggest-selling brand of television in the United States for the first quarter of 2019, scoring a full 26% of North American TV unit sales against 22% for Samsung (according to IHS Markit). And indeed TCL has ranked third or fourth in size globally for TV manufacturers for a good number of years. Should the name of TCL still be new to you, therefore, it’s most definitely time you became acquainted with the brand. It is Chinese, but not to be confused with the no-name or casually-branded TVs that turn up in bargain stores. It has been around nearly 40 years, operates in more than 80 cities across the world, with 20 manufacturing units and 35 R&D centres…

N aim Audio isn’t as odd as it once was; its jokey arrogance has largely subsided, and it answers, to at least some extent, to its holding company masters across the Channel, VerVent Audio Group, also owners of Focal. But this hasn’t stopped it delivering both high-level product like the Statement (see page 36) or projects which combine the skills of the two VerVent companies, as does this Mu-so wireless speaker, which benefits from an injection of Focal’s design flair and driver nous. The first Mu-so somehow maintained Naim’s emphasis on audio excellence while shifting into this potentially populace-pleasing product area; reviewers loved it (it won a Sound+Image award), and it proved highly successful with consumers. A smaller near-cubic Mu-so ‘Qb’ also followed. And now, five years on from the…

Melbourne’s Tivoli Hi-Fi is inviting all our readers — yes, everyone, whether you’re looking for a new system or just keen to see the store’s new approach — to head down to the Camberwell Shopping Precinct to see the result of its recent renovations. These see big changes to both the brands carried and the way they are presented, together with further key changes upcoming too in customer service and staffing. Tivoli’s Geoff Haynes walked us through the changes, and what were they trying to achieve. “We want people to come here, we’re inviting them to experience Tivoli Hi-Fi and the ideas we’ve now put in place,” he told us. “Come and see what we do, see Tivoli as you’ve never seen it before. And we will take them on…

The client building this houseboat already had a smart home courtesy of Argus Technologies, and wanted the same ease of use for their new luxury floating home — “a whole home control system, including video distribution of multiple sources to all televisions, audio distribution of music and streaming services, lighting control, and CCTV surveillance (used also for navigation). In particular they requested that it “should make life simple”, so they could just get there, press a button, and everything springs to life, while similarly when leaving, a single button press performs all actions required to shut the boat down. Argus Technologies’ role soon expanded to encompass full responsibility for all general electrical requirements within the houseboat, leaving only power generation (solar, inverter and generator systems) with an alternate electrical contractor.…

Home cinema or, er, spaceship? A bit of both, perhaps, courtesy of Beijing’s Zene Private Theater, delivering this amazing Shanghai theatre where we are told the client personally supervised the quality of the architect-designed room decoration and “each part of the room has been changed at least twice to make everything perfect”. While acoustic treatment was incorporated, the room design left little room for subwoofer placement so all four subs were placed in the front baffle wall, and no separate equipment room was allowed at the back so the Sony projector is situated inside the viewing room. Still, we reckon the Meyer Sound EXP cinema speaker Atmos system should be able to cover any fan noise...…

The categories for Integrated Homes are all about bringing smart-home systems together, under unified control. The only finalist in Level I is Electronic Living, from Queensland, where the brief for this architecturally-designed home was to integrate an AV solution without impinging on the décor and styling. Electronic Living chose a Control4 platform to integrate all the subsystems together, with easy-to-use on-wall touch panels (below) plus the Control4 app on mobile devices to control everything from audio and AV to lighting, security and access, even the pool area lighting. Amazon Alexa has also been integrated into Control4 to allow voice control of systems including specific lights, scenes, AV control and climate control. A Clipsal C-Bus system controls all lighting and motorised blinds (see right), fans and heat lamps, HVAC/AC, but the…

Len Wallis Audio was originally enlisted as a consultant here, by a home-owner who was well researched on home technologies, and who wanted a completely integrated smart home with all electrical sub-systems under a single control solution. But after initial discussions LWA became the ‘Solution Provider’ for a full high-end Savant control system covering lighting, security, enterprise-grade data networking, HVAC, pool control, and audio-visual. The AV for the home included seven fully-calibrated audio zones, with four of those also carrying distributed 4K video, and three configured for surround sound using dedicated Marantz AV receivers for processing and power. The living room system is further reinforced with a Rotel ‘Class AB’ power amp for greater fidelity from the Triangle speaker package. Another 12-channel Rotel power amplifier is used for the distributed…

The build process for this luxury Queensland ‘forever home’ was well under way with cabling about to start when Bridger was contacted to take over from a previous installer out of their depth. “Within a few days, we had ironed out the mess, and commenced works onsite,” says Bridger, noting that the owners had been planning this home for years prior to construction, so that their ability to make decisions quickly on the spot assisted with the shorter timeframes available. The system needed to cover three separate areas — the main house, the exteriors, and the ‘Rec Club’ pictured above, a detached building with video wall, wine cellar, bar and pool table. All user interfaces needed to control AV, lights, blinds, fans, heaters, pumps and air-conditioning, as well as remote…

You can turn to our 2019 Sound+Image Awards issue for more details on this final CEDIA finalist, which is entered into CEDIA’s ‘Media Room Level II’ likely for lack of another category to describe this unique room. While the full-wall screen (right) can be utilised as a 4K movie screen, a second projector fitted with a short-throw lens can fill the entire seven-metre width (as shown) creating an ‘art wall’ to show projected art. The challenges weren’t merely the projector throw distance, but also ambient light from the windows at the right of the room, the solution using three blinds in total, plus blockout and sheer curtains. In addition the noisy existing AC system saw Wavetrain designing “one of the most elaborate A/C systems we have designed”. And if you’ve…

Marantz has announced the latest versions of its popular slimline AV receivers, which provide multichannel power, an HDMI hub for the home, and HEOS wireless multiroom streaming, all in a chassis far lower than the usual AV receiver height. The $1099 NR1510 and $1399 NR1710 share the ability to handle 4K/60Hz pass-through at full-rate 4:4:4 color resolution, including support for HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG High Dynamic Range. The NR1510 has six HDMI inputs and offers five channels of amplification rated at 50W per channel, while the NR1710 ups that to eight HDMI inputs and seven channels rated at 50W each. The HDMI output supports not only ARC but also the new enhanced ARC (eARC) to play surround signals from the TV into the receiver. While both receivers can decode…

Roksan was renowned in the late 1980s and 1990s for a series of fine turntables and related equipment named after historical Persian people and places — the Xerxes, Artaxerxes, Artemis, and also the Darius loudspeakers, notable for being the first to spring-isolate the tweeters from the bass units. Following the brand’s purchase by Monitor Audio in 2016, Roksan is revived and back in Australia through Interdyn, starting with the pictured flagship ‘Blak’ electronics and also the lower-level K3 component range. The Blak CD player ($5999) and integrated amplifier ($6999) combine substantial build with styling that includes the orange LED display and, on the amplifier, the orange-ringed volume indicator (plus a similarly solid and orange-labelled remote control). Connection between the two will be made using balanced or unbalanced analogue cables; the…

Mick Peaker is Managing Director of AVICAL Australia, and an ISF Level II Video Calibrator, capable of tuning your projector or television to perfection, and he’s as clued-up a dude as you’ll find on the differences between brands and the adjustments needed to get your display showing what the film-makers intended. We asked him about the benefits of calibration, and whether the move to 4K and HDR has changed things. SOUND+IMAGE: So why should our readers consider having a TV or projector calibrated? MICK PEAKER: In short, if you’re spending multiple thousands of dollars on a projector or TV and you don’t get it calibrated, you’re simply not going to get what you paid for. Many people believe that their display is just fine out of the box, but they…

While our main reviews in Sound+Image necessarily focus on equipment, we know full well that the room in which the equipment operates is perhaps the most important element of all — its shape, its acoustics, the ambient level of sound before you start cranking the gear. So it’s always a pleasure to cover a home theatre project involving Wavetrain Cinemas, because their designs deliver often-award-winning combinations of room plus equipment, all of which, in the final event, just disappears behind a full-blown home cinema experience. And in this case, the experience is even more moving than usual, because five of the seven seats are equipped with D-BOX motion systems, described by their Canadian manufacturer as “the best non-distracting cinematic motion available in the world”, thereby carefully distinguishing them from the…

It’s getting on for two years since we originally covered this hi-fi home in which Len Wallis Audio’s team had commissioned a unique version of Naim Audio’s Statement amplifier — one which doubled up on the twin power amplifiers of this already uber-high-end design. The result won a 2019 Sound+Image ‘Gold’ installation award. But recently LWA’s Charl du Plessis contacted us to let us know the installation has now been taken one step further, with another pair of power amplifiers added, thereby turning this into the tri-amped Statement system you see pictured above right, with one Naim Statement S1 pre-amp in the centre, flanked by no fewer than six S1 power amps. The system is still using the Sound Lab Ultimate U1-PX loudspeakers and bespoke Sound Lab Ultimate subwoofers from…

Sennheiser sees AMBEO as an ‘umbrella terminology’ for immersive audio, or ‘3D audio’. Uwe Cremering (see overleaf) describes it neatly as simply “a listening experience”. When we recently interviewed Peter Ogley, Chief Operating Officer responsible for Sennheiser’s Consumer Electronics Division, he split it into four areas. “We really believe we have the opportunity to do different things throughout the industry. We split it into four areas — first how we capture audio, so things like the VR Mic [pictured overleaf], but we also work with many studios now to understand how we’re going to capture audio for things like augmented reality in the future. And with our heritage in microphones, that’s a great place for us to take that. The AMBEO smart headset (our review at avhub.com.au/ambeoheadset): that was a…

So far BenQ’s UltraHD projector offerings have been at either end of the sales spectrum. There have been the premium models, up near the $10,000 price point, and the budget models, down somewhere near a quarter of that price. Now BenQ is plugging that gap with the BenQ W5700 at $3999, and in several ways is a marked upgrade over the latest budget model, the W2700. Equipment This projector clearly looks like a home theatre projector, not just a tarted-up business or education model. It’s wide. It’s black. It’s reasonably heavy (6.5kg). Not imposing, but certainly substantial. It is based around DLP technology, of course, this being BenQ. It uses the 0.47-inch Digital Micromirror Device with XPR. This is a 1080p panel which delivers four flashes per frame, shifted to…

Hisense TVs use the company’s own VDIAA smart operating system. Or do they? The new RG series — these are priced closer to the entry level for Hisense UltraHD TVs — use Android. Here we dig into the 65-inch version, the Hisense 65RG. Equipment As a lower model among the company’s ranges, the 65RG doesn’t use Hisense’s premium ULED display, nor quantum dots. Instead, it employs a more conventional LCD panel which uses ‘Ultra Local Dimming’, albeit delivered by LED edge lighting. The panel is thin near the top, less than 9.5mm. It has supporting ribs, though, so it’s less fragile than that sounds. It’s thicker further down, swelling to 63mm in the section which accommodates the electronics and connections. Hisense doesn’t share the contrast ratio or brightness specifications of…

There was a bit of déjà vu when testing the latest and greatest wireless noise-cancellers from Audio-Technica. It’s only a few issues since we reviewed the ANC700BT, and the new 900 model proved to have the same sonic characteristics, the same controls combining hard switches with a bit of finger-swiping across the headshells, and even the same quirk of fit. So what’s different? Well the specs match for most of the sound generation stuff, hence the sonics being the same. These ANC900BTs seem to have a slightly better battery, as their life is extended to a handy 60 hours with cabled NC (as on a plane) or 35 hours of Bluetooth with NC (as on a train). Their sensitivity when using a cable is increased, so there’s more level available.…

As our last issue hit the presses, the Nikkei Asian Review reported that Huawei plans to introduce the world’s first 5G television. Say wha? But yes, you heard correctly. Huawei’s first entry into the television market will reportedly have not only an 8K display but also an unprecedented 5G module, allowing wireless data communication at better than current NBN speeds. So what would this new device be? Is it still a television? The report highlights that interactive content will be enabled by the speedy two-way 5G connection so perhaps it will be more akin to a smartphone — or an enormous phablet that you hang on the wall. Or are we seeing the birth of a new class of device altogether? Nearly every tech blog on the planet duly rehashed…

The home cinemas featured in CEDIA’s ‘Level I’ category are always interesting for an insight into what can be achieved without a budget of megabucks. “We realised that this project would be pushing the value envelope and we were glad to accept the challenge!” says The Digital Picture of this room, where the client requested immersive audio, reference-level cinema design and 4K projection, and “after experiencing our reference demo room the client requested us to, within the limited budget, build an immersive audio system that would come as close as possible to a reference 105dB system for the front row of seats.” Challenge accepted, then! A 16:9 screen was selected to allow for maximum screen width and height across all content, given the existing restrictive width at the front of…

Third finalist entry from The Digital Picture, now in the higher ‘Level II’ category, and working for clients who had done their research and were seeking good sound isolation and control over internal room acoustics to get the best from a high performance audio system and the largest CinemaScope screen that the room height would allow. One other key objective was to maximise the usable room length so that the area in front of the seats could be used for kids’ movie nights and overnight slumber parties. A BenQ 4K DLP projector and Lumagen video processor deliver both SDR and HDR content, while a Trinnov processor heads a full 16-channel sound system including height for Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D playback, all supported by acoustic treatment including attractive Artnovian panels. By…

This Level III Finalist from Wavetrain Cinemas builds a full reference-level dedicated cinema system and separate bar/gaming area into the client’s former double garage. Most of the seats incorporate the D-BOX motion system which delivers seat movement that is carefully coded to match the specific movie content for an extra dimension of immersion, augmenting the 9.2.6-channel audio system and 141-inch Severtson CinemaScope Screen. And we’ve squeezed it into this small space only because we have a full feature on this Wavetrain home cinema up the front of this issue! See p32...…

What’s that mess of cables in the centre bottom image below? That’s what can happen before your CEDIA installer arrives... “When we initially met with the client the main brief was to tidy and upgrade their existing switch room, followed by the network and Wi-Fi,” says Liquid Automation. “However, the scope of works expanded to include an AV, security, access control and automation upgrade for the property.” Those last two pictures show the switch room ‘before’ and ‘after’, with part of the challenge being the integration of all systems and sub-systems using an existing cabling infrastructure which was up to 32 years old. But Liquid Automation was up to the job, leaving the owner with Crestron touch-screens around the residence to control the various integrated systems, including local AV selection…

This spectacular luxury Queensland home was not only a challenge for its sheer size, but for the age range of users for which the control system needed to be intuitive, from the owners to their parents and grandchildren. “Design was key”, emphasises Bridger, who engaged ‘Master Certified’ Crestron programmers ‘Control Gadgets’ to assist in a user interface with simple flow, despite accessing and controlling such a range and span of different systems — more than 600 light fittings and 300 metres of LED strip lighting, security and intercoms, shades (including automation based on sunset and sunrise times), climate control, and the distributed audio and video systems around the home, which included outdoor audio for the pool, waterfront and rear yards using Sonance Landscape satellite speakers and dual subwoofers to deliver…